


You're in love with her

by Tails89



Series: Prompt Warmups [16]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Blood, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, a smidge of pining, always happy ending, improper use of heartrate monitors, prompt, sterek, stiles gets hurt and derek pines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:35:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28955067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tails89/pseuds/Tails89
Summary: “You didn’t even think Stiles! You’re always leaping into danger. You forget you’re human, or you don’t care. I wish…” He stalls again. He just can’t finish that sentence— can’t put into words the thoughts that have been spinning around his head for weeks.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: Prompt Warmups [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/935589
Comments: 6
Kudos: 160





	You're in love with her

“Stiles!”

Derek presses his hand to the human’s side, stemming the flow of blood. He winces at the movement—he’s got his own set of matching claw marks, but already Derek can feel them healing. Stiles- human, fragile Stiles- isn’t so lucky.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t—” Lydia has her hand over her mouth, eyes wide with horror. Recovering a little, she shrugs out of her cardigan and hands it over so Derek can use it to staunch the bloodflow.

It takes every ounce of his self-restraint not to growl at her. What happened wasn’t her fault. Stiles would always put her life over his own.

In the background, he can hear Scott on the phone calling for an ambulance. He has no idea how they’re going to explain this to anyone, but he doesn’t care. Scott’s the Alpha, he can clean up the mess. Derek just wants Stiles to open his eyes and spit out some sarcastic line about getting blood on Derek’s clothes.

But he doesn’t.

“Scott, how far away is that ambulance?” The flimsy fabric is quickly becoming saturated as Derek increases the pressure against Stiles’ side. “Scott,” he roars when he doesn’t get a response. “I want an answer, goddammit! Where’s the ambulance?”

“Uh, it’s on it’s way.” Scott stumbles over, falling to his knees opposite Derek. “A few minutes.”

Derek’s not sure they have a few minutes. Stiles is losing blood so fast. Derek can hear the racing of his heart as it struggles to keep circulating what’s left.

“I could give him the bite.” Scott looks up with red rimmed eyes. “I could save him—make him a were—”

“No,” Derek cuts him off.

“But—”

“He doesn’t want it.”

“He could die.”

“He could die if you try to turn him,” Derek growls. “He’s lost too much blood. He might not be strong enough to survive the change.”

“We have to try!”

“Stop it,” Lydia hisses. “Derek’s right. We can’t risk it.”

“But—”

“The ambulance will be here any second,” she reminds them, effectively cutting Scott’s argument off. “You need to hide the body before it gets here.”

Derek glances over his shoulder at the rogue wolf. The one who had gone for Lydia—until Stiles had distracted it.

It wasn’t her fault, Derek reminds himself as Scott stands to deal with the body.

It wasn’t her fault, he repeats in his head as the ambulance pulls up and two paramedics jump out.

It wasn’t her fault, he thinks as the doors close and the ambulance tears off into the night.

***

“I know why you did it.” Derek stares at his hands, twisting his fingers together. “You’re in love with her.” He doesn’t look up—can’t look up. “You’ve always loved her. I just wish…” he lets the sentence trail off and glances towards the door. There’s still no sign of John since he’d muttered something about getting some real food. Hopefully Melissa has finally convinced him to go home.

For the first time, Derek’s alone in Stiles’ room with just the steady beat of the heart monitor to keep him company.

Scrubbing a hand down his face through three-day stubble, Derek lets out a long breath.

Careful of all the tubes and wires, he picks up Stiles’ hand, curling his fingers to draw the pain away. There’s still a lot of it, but not as much as the first day.

Dark lines trail up Derek’s wrist to disappear beneath his sleeve. The pain is grounding. It reminds Derek that Stiles is still here when it could have so easily gone the other way. He watches Stiles’ face smooth out as he relaxes deeper into sleep.

“Scott had Lydia covered, she would have been fine.” Derek tightens his hold on Stiles’ hand. “You didn’t even think Stiles! You’re always leaping into danger. You forget you’re human, or you don’t care. I wish…” He stalls again. He just can’t finish that sentence— can’t put into words the thoughts that have been spinning around his head for weeks.

“An’ people say I talk too much.”

Derek’s head jerks up. “Stiles?”

“Hey Sourwolf.” The words are soft, barely there as Stiles rolls his head against the pillow.

“Hey.” Derek can’t help the smile that tugs at his lips. He’s never been more relieved to hear that nickname. “How are you feeling?”

“Mm, s’good,” Stiles murmurs, blinking against the tug of sleep that threatens to pull him back under. “Floaty.”

“You’re not allowed to scare me like that again.” Derek squeezes Stiles’ fingers in his, but he doesn’t get a response and silence descends upon the room once more.

“Jus’ trying to protect…”

The words startle Derek, thinking Stiles had gone back to sleep.

“Lydia was fine,” Derek tells him. “She was with Scott.”

“No. Not—” Stiles’ face scrunches up at the effort to get the words out. “Was protecting you.” His eyes drift shut, and his fingers go lax in Derek’s grip, unable to hold off against the medication flowing through his veins.

***

“I’m not in love with Lydia,” Stiles says a few days later, shifting against his pillows. They’re alone in the room again after Stiles had threatened his dad with bodily harm if he didn’t go home and sleep. 

“You heard that?”

“Mm.” Stiles fidgets, picking at the tape on the back of his hand. “Y’know you talk a lot when you think no one is listening.”

“Yeah, well you talk a lot for someone who is supposed to be resting,” Derek teases, face flushing.

“Don’t you dare try and change the subject.” Stiles looks up, his fingers still worrying at the IV tubing. “We are having this conversation.”

“Okay, then you can tell me why you thought you needed to protect me,” Derek says, scooting his chair closer to the bed.

“Because,” Stiles speaks slowly, putting emphasis behind every word. “I’m not in love with Lydia.” The steady rhythm of the heart monitor picks up slightly and Stiles glances across at it as if it has betrayed him.

“Oh.” Derek is an idiot.

“Yeah.” The monitor chirps as Stiles’ heartrate climbs and he gingerly throws his hand across his face to hide the flush that’s creeping up his neck. “God this is embarrassing,” he complains. “It’s like my own personal truth detector.”

“So what happens if I do this?” Derek stands and steps towards the bed, giving Stiles plenty of time to stop him. It’s a bit awkward, Derek has to lean over the raised sides of the bed and Stiles can’t sit forward with the newly closed wound in his side.

They make it work. Derek cups Stiles’ face, his thumb sweeping over the high ridge of his cheek before leaning in to brush his lips against Stiles’.

The heart monitor lets out a high pitched beep.

“That,” Stiles laughs a little breathlessly. “That is what happens. And you should do it again.”

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a kudos or a comment if you enjoyed. Cheers peeps.
> 
> I'm on [Tumblr](https://tails89.tumblr.com/). Come say hi.


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